La Grande High School - Mimir Yearbook (La Grande, OR)

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(Cuntrntu I (AbmxniBtrniimt nub Clnssrs. II ©rgnuizutiuns ani» •Artifeitirs. III £it rnr i. IV Athlrtir«. V -Humor.

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Jfnmuurit «j|N THE 1927aMimir we have at- tempted to record and interpret something of the civic and educational growth of La Grande. If this book can, in later years, recall this develop- ment intermingled with pleasant mem- ories of LaGrande High School, it will have achieved its end.

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AtominxstnttiiJu nuit dlLnssi's From the day of La Grande's first public school to the present is not an ex- ceedingly long span as time is measured, but the period is marked with almost unbelievable changes and advancement. Church life has not materially changed; commerce is only more voluminous and rapid; social life has simply changed in certain aspects; athletic diversion has much the same old twang; human nature is pretty much unchanged—but not so with Education. Parents and pupils in con- tact with La Grande’s school system as now constituted embracing as it does virtually all that is best in the newest subjects, methods, and equipment—can scarcely comprehend that when education was started in the city, reading and spelling comprised the curriculum, while discarded newspapers and a lone “reader” constituted the sources of learning. The development of education from that condition to the present perfection reads more like the manipulation of a mystic wand than the accomplishments of public desire and human direction. La Grande’s first school was not a public institution, but a private venture which the citizenry of 1863 quickly seized upon as the best method of giving their youngsters all possible advantages. Provedence M. Currey, grandfather of George H. Currey and Fred B. Currey, La Grande business men of today, opened such an institution in his own home on B Street, charging $10.00 as the annual tuition. From discarded newspapers that occasionally found their way here and from a reader brought across the plains by Joe Baker, Mr. Currey proceeded to teach reading and spelling. That was all, except the lessons of manhood and honor that radiated from the principal. It was a democratic institution, this class and its teacher; for when storms raged without, teacher and pupils cooked their lunch at the Currey fireplace, ate heartily and happily of what might be at hand, and then returned to their lessons. F'urther proof that this episode was not ages and ages ago, lies in the fact that the first class La Grande had contained such well known personages as the late Joe Baker, the last Sarah Bussell Chaplin, Wil- liam Bussell who today is passing the autumn of his life in this city, Ada Brown Bogers, a resident of Corvallis, and her sister Mrs. Esther Brown Ellsworth. Mrs. Ellsworth is still an honored citizen of Union county and a frequent visitor in our own city that once bore the name of Brownsville in honor of her father, Ben Brown, who was one of the first settlers and who, until his death in 1909 was a revered pioneer of La Grande. These conditions prevailed for a few years and then a public school became a necessity. A building was erected. Taxpayers decreed it should be perched on a little knoll near the mouth of Deal’s canyon and that it should be white. F'or many years this crude structure served its purpose and met the needs of the com- munity. As population increased, private homes were employed to handle the overflow. One such was the present L. H. Bussell home, the upstairs of which became an improvised school room. Eventually these makeshifts proved wholly inadequate and in 1886 the dis- trict erected a building that was the cynosure of all strangers who saw it, a struc- ture that surely would care for school demands in years to come. It was this structure that we of later years refer to in language perhaps disrespectful when we say “The Old White School.” It was located on Second street near our pres- ent athletic field. Its curriculum had broadened to include grammar courses and three years of high school studies. Crude, as viewed in the eyes of present day folk, it nevertheless was the foundry that moulded much of the character of La Grande’s present day middle-aged citizenship. Those high types of future mothers and fathers, professional and business men, poured out of its doors at commencement time were due to the wonderful personalities that permeated the institution. Such teachers as Ella Weathers Bussell, Carry Wellman, Dora Schilke, Olive Slater, Bertha Slater Smith, Bess Geibel, Nellie Stevens, Jeanette Clark Biggs, (7)